Los Angeles Lakers: How this Lakers Team would Perform with Prime Kobe (Simulation)

The Los Angeles Lakers are arguably in the worst dry spell in franchise history. The team is patiently awaiting their next superstar.

The Los Angeles Lakers are pretty bad this season, and they have been pretty bad the last few seasons. Los Angeles failed to set a realistic plan for the post-Kobe Bryant era, leaving them unequipped to be successful after Kobe’s departure. Dwight Howard seemed to be that plan, but he was nowhere near as dominant in purple and gold and often butted heads with Bryant.

This left the Lakers with nothing to really hold onto after Bryant got old and eventually retired. Sure, this led to the selections of, hopefully, future stars D’Angelo Russell, Brandon Ingram, and Julius Randle. Even other roles players such as Jordan Clarkson, Larry Nance Jr, and Ivica Zubac have shown immense signs of promise.

The problem is though that these guys are way too young, they are way too green. None of them have entered their athletic prime, with Julius Randle being the closest yet still a couple year away, and they lack that NBA leadership. Heck, the average age of their starting five is 21 years old – that is just insane.

So, because of this potential star power, Lakers fans have been hoping that a star such as Gordon Hayward or Blake Griffin would join the Lakers in the offseason. We have all played what-if, and this what-if may be the most ludicrous, but the most intriguing.

What if we took perhaps the best Laker of all-time, Kobe Bryant, and threw him on this Lakers team to lead the way to championship gold. No, we’re not talking 2015-16 Kobe Bryant, we are talking the best black mamba there has ever been.

We are using NBA 2K17 to simulate a full season for the Lakers with Kobe Bryant leading the way (trendy, right?) Now, the only Kobe Bryant available on the game was the 2000-01 Kobe, which was evidently before he hit his prime. Not to worry though, we bumped his stats to better reflect his prime (using 2K9 attributes) to bump him to a 99 overall.

More from Los Angeles Lakers

The starting five is all the same, just with Kobe Bryant. We have D’Angelo Russell at the point, Kobe at the two guard, Brandon Ingram and Julius Randle at forward, and Ivica Zubac at center. We set the Lakers gameplan to “play through star” and bumped Kobe’s minutes up to 40. So, how did the team do?

The 26 win team had a significant improvement with the Black Mamba leading the way. Lead by Bryant’s 32.2 points, 8.0 rebounds, and 8.4 assists per game the Lakers played their way to a fourth seed with a 50-32 record.

Bryant finished second in MVP voting behind Russell Westbrook and made the All-NBA First Team.

A 24 win increase is significant and the team thrived in the postseason as well. In round one against the Utah Jazz, the Lakers almost blew a 3-1 lead, closing out the Jazz in game seven 120-106. In the close out game Bryant Scored 30 alongside eight rebounds and five assists.

Heading into the second round of the playoffs the Lakers squared off against the Golden State Warriors, where they were able to force a game seven after going down 3-2. However, despite a 30 point effort from Kobe, the team fell 120-113.

Next: Potential Trade Packages for Ivica Zubac

Regardless, it is obvious the star that Kobe Bryant was for the Los Angeles Lakers. Kobe alone nearly doubled the number of wins this Los Angeles Lakers team has. All Lakers fans miss him, and likely wish that prime Kobe Bryant could return to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Home/Los Angeles Lakers